Rep. Barney Frank “Not Optimistic” About Passage Of HR 2267 Before Elections

Democratic Representative Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Congressman who has been pushing for the legalization and regulation of online gaming in the United States, has stated in an interview that he is “not optimistic” regarding the passage of his legislation prior to the 2010 midterm elections.

The bill known as HR 2267, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act, is the subject of an article on the website The Hill written by Kevin Bogardus. Frank, who has been at the forefront of pushing the legislation through his chairmanship of the House Financial Services Committee, notes that the legislative agenda for the final couple of weeks of the current Congress is quite busy. This, Bogardus reports, is causing him to have some troubles in putting the bill to a vote on the House of Representatives floor.

Because of the current backlog of legislation, Bogardus states that Frank “doesn’t have a commitment from House leadership officials that they would move the bill before the lame duck session.” Causing further issues for any movement on HR 2267 is the lack of a companion bill in the U.S. Senate. While Senator Robert Menendez, a Democratic senator from New Jersey, has introduced a companion bill called S 1597 (the Internet Poker and Game of Skill Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act of 2009), he has not been able to garner any co-sponsorship from his fellow Senators.

Another complication for Frank’s legislation is the delay in passage of its companion bill covering the taxation issues. The companion piece for HR 2267, Representative Jim McDermott’s (D-WA) Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act of 2009 (HR 2268), hasn’t come for a vote of the House Ways and Means Committee, meaning that, while Frank’s bill would regulate the industry, there aren’t any guidelines on how to tax it.

With the scheduled date for adjournment of the current Congress set for October 8th, Bogardus notes that if HR 2267 does not come to the floor prior to the adjournment, it may be a part of a short “lame duck” session that will take place before the new Congress is seated in January. If HR 2267 comes to the floor during this lame duck session, a Democratic Senate aide is quoted by Bogardus, there will be “a small chance” that it would be attached to a jobs bill that would ensure passage, much like the previous Congress did in passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in 2006.

Bogardus cites a statement from Michael Waxman, the chairman of the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative and a supporter of Frank’s legislation, regarding the likelihood of the tack on method being used. Bogardus quotes Waxman as saying, “The greatest odds for online gambling regulation legislation to be approved this year are for it to get done as part of a larger legislative package, primarily because of the opportunity to dedicate the considerable new revenue generated as an offset for another program or need.” In the article, Waxman also cites the bipartisan nature of HR 2267, noting, “This is one of the few issues where broad support can be found on both sides of the aisle.”

As recently as August, Frank was confident that HR 2267 would pass during the current legislative period. After markup in the House Financial Services Committee, the bill was passed out of committee by a 41-22 margin. The bill has 70 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives, including 2008 Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul and Democratic Nevada Representative Shelley Berkley, among others.

If HR 2267, and any of its companion legislation in either the House or the Senate, is not enacted prior to the end of the current Congress, then the bill will die. Legislation proposed during a run of a particular two-year Congressional schedule does not carry over to the next Congress. The November 2nd elections are expected to be a battleground during the 2010 midterm elections, with the Democratic-controlled Congress in danger of losing either one or both of the legislative bodies (the Senate and/or the House) to Republican control.